Silver Linings
by Nectaris
Summary: Draco Malfoy was certainly of no interest to a Weasley unless it was for hexing practice. Ginny, however, finds that even if he's unwilling to accept it, he's definitely earned some sympathy. Starts in HBP, Ginny's POV. Canonical.
1. Chapter 1

This starts during HBP, in Ginny's POV, so the D/G action will be awhile coming. I've tried not to use the exact scenes in the book, but in a couple places it's unavoidable, so apologies to all who have read it and are bored for a bit. My first D/G, hope you enjoy! Please tell me if I missed anything.

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Ginny climbed the steps to the infirmary, carefully holding onto the vase of flowers so as not to drop them when Pansy Parkinson barreled her way down the stair well, a tragic and tear-streaked expression on her face. She shoved past Ginny and nearly sent the slighter-built redhead bouncing off the opposite wall. Ginny muttered a few choice words about insufferable Slytherins with token Gryffindor loathing and readjusted the flowers.

Reaching the top of the steps, she walked through the sunny ward down to the bed where Neville was lying, hand bandaged tightly after being bitten by a very temperamental, rare, and not to mention extremely poisonous, plant. He gave her a wry grin and waved at her as she approached. Ginny stopped at the foot of his bed and looked from him to the flowers in pretend apprehension.

"Well, I thought I should bring you flowers, but I wasn't sure what your feelings are about plants right now..." Neville laughed and shook his head.

"Get bitten by one plant..."

"Only Neville Longbottom could find a way to get a plant to bite him." Ginny said decisively and Neville smiled sheepishly.

"It was my own fault. Went to grab a Spotted Strangler Fig and got a handful of a Venomous Polka-Dot Mousetrap instead." Ginny grimaced at him and put the flowers on the bedside table.

"What's Pansy having a fit about, Neville? She nearly flattened me all over the wall on her way out."

"Oh, it's just Malfoy," Neville said, making his face as dark as he could manage. "She comes up here to fawn over him at least four times a day now. Woke me up last night so early in the morning I could still see the stars through the window. He's been here for two days now." He jerked his head towards the bed nearest to the stairwell Ginny had come up. 

"He's probably faking it," Ginny said scathingly, unwilling to believe Harry's curse had caused that much damage. But Neville shook his head.

"I dunno. He isn't awake much. Blood all over him when he came in. Harry got him good." He gave a guilty smile. "Anyway, I'd pretend to be asleep, too if Pansy was visiting me and not you."

"Simpering little hanger-on," Ginny said, determined that at least one Slytherin would suffer abuse in the course of the conversation. "Bet he loves it, being worshipped like that." Neville fidgeted a bit.

"I think she just does it when someone's there to see it. I mean, I pretend to be asleep when I hear her coming, not that it makes her any quieter with the 'Draco, darling!' and 'won't my sleeping prince wake up?'" But if I'm asleep she isn't here five minutes, and when Snape and Mrs. Malfoy came in to see him, she draped herself all over him until they as much as told her to get out. Can't say much for his mother, looked at him, saw he should live, then made a snippy comment about how his father would be ashamed of him. Then she left," Neville said in a low voice.

"Neville, are you feeling sorry for Malfoy?" Ginny asked with mock incredulity in her voice. Neville was a lot more sensitive than the typical Gryffindor, and it didn't really surprise her. Malfoy did hang around with a pretty terrible lot, or rather, they hung all over him. Neville shrugged.

"I guess. I almost feel guilty when you lot come up here with chocolate frogs and flowers and talk to me and he's just lying there looking like he's dead. I mean, all that happened to me was being bit by a stupid plant..."

"Yeah, why ARE you still here, Neville? They don't usually make Professor Sprout's victims spend the night."

"I TOLD Madame Pomfrey that, but she insists I've got to stay here and rest unless I want to be covered in purple spots the rest of my life. Then I said if that's all that happens how does the bloody thing eat mice then? Bites one and then waits for it to die of humiliation?" Ginny didn't hear the last part, she was falling over with hysterical laughter at the thought of Neville being permanently covered in purple spots. When she recovered enough to speak she gasped out, "Well I guess you better stay here then, Neville! Look, I've got to be off, Hermione won't stop bugging Harry about the Prince, and he'll go positively blithering if I don't go distract her. We'll be up again to see you tonight if you're not out by then." She said goodbye to Neville and turned to leave, but as she walked towards the stairs she caught sight of the pitiful, frail boy frowning even in his sleep. Sighing, she took a few steps back and pulled one of Neville's flowers out of the vase. Neville grinned at her and she rolled her eyes, waving goodbye. On her way back, she set the flower on the night table and gave a pitying smile to the sleeping boy before she left. 

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Ginny didn't think about Malfoy again until Saturday night, after the temporary Gryffindor Seeker had won more than just the Quidditch Match. Ginny and Harry finally came up for air after an hour of post-game and, for Harry, post-detention snogging. Ginny tore her eyes off Harry's brilliant, beautiful green ones and looked out over the Quidditch field, still brightly lit with the afternoon sun. She turned back to look at him. Harry grinned in a way that reminded her distinctly of Lockhart's expression after his explosively failed memory spell. He continued to grin a little lopsidedly at her, an impression only increased by the fact that his glasses were now extremely crooked. She smiled.

"Harry?"

"Wazzat?" His mind slowly slid back into his head from the air above where it had been enjoying the scenery.

"You look as if you've been hit with a Bludger." They both laughed, and she wriggled a little closer to him, if there was any space left to wiggle into. She put her head on his shoulder and he stroked her hair silently for a few minutes.

"I haven't been up to see Neville today," he said guiltily after a while.

"Don't worry about it, the whole Gryffindor pack visited him after the game, all roaring and shouting. Ron would have had them all reenact a life-size blow-by-blow match if Madame Pomfrey hadn't gone absolutely starkers and actually threatened the lot of us with detention." Harry laughed. "Besides," Ginny continued, "your best pal in the world is still up there, and feeling chipper enough to scowl at the whole gang of us as if he could light us on fire with angsty-ness."

"Malfoy," Harry groaned and put his free hand over his eyes. Ginny bit her lip and hesitated. The _Sectumsempra_ incident was clearly bothering him, but maybe it would help if he talked to someone who wouldn't tell him he was "brilliant" or yell at him for using unknown spells.

"Harry, what on earth was Malfoy doing in Myrtle's bathroom that night anyway?" Harry flinched, and Ginny instantly regretted asking but felt a twinge of jealousy. This was the sort of thing he only told Ron and Hermione. He seemed to reach the same conclusion, looking at the expression on her face. He sighed.

"He was crying."

"WHAT!" Ginny's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Harry almost decided to kiss it and the hell with Malfoy but he kept going, glad to talk to someone whose reaction wasn't quite so predictable.

"Yep. Sobbing his bloody eyes out. Moaning Myrtle couldn't have done better," he said with a degree of satisfaction.

"What for?"

"Something about someone going to kill him, and not being able to do something." The memory of what Neville had told her about Narcissa flashed in her mind, but she dismissed it as ridiculous. Other, more obvious things came immediately to mind, though...

"It's... Voldemort. Isn't it?" Ginny found she was having less trouble saying the name after her experience in her first year. Not surprisingly, being around Harry seemed to help. Harry nodded.

"We think so. He was pretty miffed that I'd seen him. I swear, Ginny, I'd never have hit him with that if he hadn't been going to use _Cruciatus_ on me..." he began, sounding a little desperate to have her believe he wasn't a monster. She put a hand on his mouth, thought better of it, and replaced the hand with her own mouth. After a few minutes relieved snogging, she pulled away for a moment and looked him in the eye.

"I believe you. And I think that's enough about Malfoy."

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Ginny hardly saw Harry after that; her O.W.L.s loomed in the distance, and Harry's detentions with Snape seemed to drag on longer than the eternity that they had felt like before. Despite how little time they had together (always punctuated by Ron's groanings) Ginny was glowing with happiness, and enjoying herself so much that Malfoy didn't even approach her thoughts. Neville was long since out of the hospital ward, and, not that she'd noticed, Draco hardly ever frequented the Great Hall anymore.

Ginny completely forgot about the ferret until a breathless Ron and Hermione dashed into the library where she had been studying. Both of them came to a screeching halt when they found her, Ron nearly knocking Hermione down as he slammed into her, and Hermione clutching at her chest. Ginny wasn't sure if she should be alarmed or amused.

"Honestly, you two, if you make much more noise Madame Pince'll have me thrown out…" Ron made a strangled noise that sounded like he was attempting to speak without any air in his lungs, but Hermione cut him off.

"It's Harry…" she gasped for air in between words. "He's gone off….." Ginny paled. "With Dumbledore…" Ginny relaxed. "For the next Horcrux…." She paled again, and felt a stab of fear but tried to sound unconcerned.

"Well, good for Harry. So what's …."

"He said Malfoy…. finished….whatever it is he's doing. He's done it and Dumbledore will be gone and that unspeakable git will have free roam of the castle," Hermione finished in one breath.  
Ron continued to nod vigorously behind her until Ginny said, "Well why in Merlin's name are you lot still here! Who's watching Draco?" Ron's mouth dropped open and Hermione sputtered, but Ginny just grabbed her by the robes and spun her around as she ran past her, leaving all her books behind. Ron followed her, Hermione staggering to keep her feet as Ginny dragged her, red hair whipping out behind her as she ran.

"Have you got the map?" she yelled back to Ron as she ran out of the library and across the Great Hall. 

"Yeah, Malfoy's in the Room of Requirement." Ron shouted back.

"Who is?" Neville asked confusedly as they ran past.

"Excellent! Neville!" Ron gasped out as he ran by, seizing the perplexed boy in much the same manner that Ginny had grabbed Hermione.

"It's only a few minutes to curfew, where are we going?" stuttered Neville.

"Explain…when we get there!" Ron forced out. When they finally reached the seventh floor corridor where the Room of Requirement was, they crashed to a stop in a heap of black robes and looked around anxiously, panting. Whatever they had been expecting (perhaps Malfoy, standing in the middle of the hallway and strongly resembling Voldemort, laughing maniacally), was obviously not this rather anticlimactic empty hallway.

"Isn't?… Where's…" Ron choked and hauled out the Marauder's Map with effort. Sure enough, the little dot Draco Malfoy was in the room. And then it disappeared. "What?" Ron yelped. Hermione yanked the map from Ron's confused hands and perused it.

"He's not here, he must've gotten out already." Ron shook his head firmly.

"No, he was there, right there, then he disappeared." Hermione looked at him in disbelief.

"He can't have, no one can Disapparate here."

"Is he somewhere else on the map?" asked Ginny impatiently, craning her neck to look.

"I didn't SAY he Disapparated, did I? He just…. ruddy….disappeared!" Ron protested, enunciating each word clearly. Hermione glared at the map again, and indeed, Malfoy had "just disappeared." Neville made a confused noise behind Hermione, and she turned towards him.

"Oh, sorry Neville. Look…." Hermione went into the most detailed explanation she could come up with, given the level of tension around them. Ginny felt it wasn't really helping; he looked more befuddled than ever. When she had finished, Ginny got Neville by the arm.

"Malfoy is up to something evil, we need to watch him. Harry thinks Snape's in on it; do NOT roll your eyes like that, Hermione, Harry thinks Snape's in on it and we need to watch him, too. Harry can't be here because he's on an important mission with Dumbledore." A little comprehension showed on Neville's face. Hermione looked hurt.

"Oh."

"Sorry, 'Mione, it's just the short version is so much simpler…"Ginny consoled.

"What are you doing outside so late, Neville?" Ron asked.

"Trevor," Neville said miserably. "He's gone off again."

"Well good luck that, or we wouldn't have run into you…" Ginny began when Hermione interrupted.

"Oh I'm such an idiot! Harry even told us to use them, where is it….Aha!" Hermione pounced on something in her pocket, poked her wand at it and muttered something.

"Ow!" yelled Ron, grabbing at his pocket.

"Honestly, Ron, they're not THAT warm," Hermione said as she pocketed the charmed Galleon. "I don't know if anyone will come, it's after curfew, and people may have forgotten about them. And speaking of Harry and luck, d'you still have the Felix potion, Ron?"

"Blimey, I'd forgot all about that! Here you lot, take a swig and pass it on. Cheers!" Ron took a small gulp and handed it around the circle.

"Well, shouldn't someone be watching Snape?" Ginny said exasperatedly. 

"Yeah, well I guess I will," began Ron.

"No," interrupted Ginny. "I'm going. You need to watch Malfoy."

"Malfoy's not even here! Besides, I won't have my baby sister around that traitorous, overgrown git —"

"Oh, so you'd rather I be here with Malfoy around!" Ron turned fuchsia.

"Of course not–"

"Oh, for heaven's sake, I'LL go." Hermione said.

"You, alone, to watch Snape? Not bloody likely!" Ron interjected.

"Are we having the meeting in the hallway, then?" a dreamy voice asked behind them.

"Luna! Oh good. Look you three, I'll go with Luna and explain on the way to Snape's office." With that, Hermione took Luna (who seemed completely unperturbed to be wandering in the halls past curfew with a group of noisily bickering people) and walked off down the hall.

"Great, now she's DEFINITELY safe," Ron muttered. "Be careful!" he shouted after the two girls in an abnormally high-pitched voice, and immediately he flushed red. "I mean, Snape, he's a slimy dangerous git…" Ginny smirked and Neville continued to look slightly clueless. "How come Crabbe and Goyle aren't lurking around?" said Ron, desperately trying to change the subject and looking about wildly as if the totally empty hallway was about to spawn Crabbe and Goyle forms. 

"It's almost ten after curfew, Ron," Ginny said, pointing at the clock on the wall. "Even Crabbe and Goyle can't threaten McGonagall out of giving them a detention." Neville blanched.

"McGonagall? What if she finds us here?"

" We'll just tell her Crookshanks chased Trevor down here and we followed him," Ginny said brusquely, clearly trying to sound unconcerned. "Compared with whatever Malfoy must be doing in there, McGonagall is the least of our worries. Besides, we've got the Felix." Neville didn't look reassured, but he kept quiet.

"So now what do we do? Hang around and guard an empty room until Malfoy leaps out from somewhere and jinxes us?" Ron asked.

"Now," Ginny said calmly, "we wait." She folded her arms and leaned back against the wall opposite the Room of Requirement.

"Wait? For what?" Ron said, looking puzzled.

"For the albino ferret to finish whatever it is that he's doing in there so I can hex him into bits when he comes out," she said as if it were obvious. Neville grinned a little.

"Oh. All right then." Ron sounded rather satisfied with the answer. He crossed the hall to wait next to Ginny and Neville against the opposite wall.  
Five minutes passed. Ron fidgeted a little. Ten minutes passed. Neville began to look around a little nervously and Ron tapped his foot. One minute passed, and Ginny snapped at Ron to stop tapping his foot. Ron snapped back, and they were right in the middle of a nervous quarrel when the door to the Room of Requirement swung open and Draco Malfoy stared at them.

Ron and Ginny were too stunned for a second to do anything, and so, apparently was Malfoy, because the customary sneer had hardly come across his face before he ducked to avoid Neville's hex. He yelled in surprise, and so did the Death Eater directly behind him when Neville's spell soared over Malfoy's head and hit him square in the face. There was a moment's confused scuffling where the shadowy figures behind Draco pulled him back, Ron and Ginny whipped out their wands alongside Neville's, and the door banged shut again. Ron cursed.

"Wow, Neville, lucky shot!" Ron exclaimed in admiration. They could hear angry mutterings getting louder from inside the door. Ginny did her best to put a barrier charm on the door, but she heard the muffled cry Reducto! from inside the door just in time to shove Neville to the floor and save him from being skewered by shards of door. Malfoy stepped through the ruins clutching a grotesque severed arm in his hand, and tossed something into the air.

Ron howled in surprise and Ginny shouted; the hallway had gone completely and instantly black. The three groped their way around in the darkness as the sound of laughing Death Eaters passed by them. Neville screamed in alarm as a cold hand with sharp nails grabbed his ankle and began to haul him backward.

"Fenrir!" a massive voice boomed out threateningly. The hand on Neville's ankles abruptly released its grip.

"Lumos! LUMOS!" shouted Ron and Ginny at the top of their lungs. The laughter redoubled at their efforts. "Incendio! Flammia! Lumos!" No charm brought light to the impenetrable darkness, and the sounds of the Death Eaters began to grow fainter down the corridor. The witch and wizards began to feel around for each other.

"Ron!"

"Ginny!"

"Ron! Neville! Are you all right?"

"Fine, keep going, he can't have made the whole castle dark…" Gripping each other's hands with Neville in the middle and Ron and Ginny with one hand each on the walls, they felt out in front of them. They shuffled what seemed like miles, waiting to fall down an unseen staircase or be grabbed out of the darkness by a Death Eater rearguard. Finally, they stumbled blinking into the light of the stairwell. Ron looked confused.

"They didn't even leave someone behind to…take care of us," he said, bewildered. Ginny tossed her head angrily.

"We're just kids," she said with venom. Then she grinned. "Very lucky kids…C'mon, we've got to tell someone, we have to find the Aurors." She dashed down the stairs and was almost around the corner before Neville and Ron caught up with her.

"Where are they!" Ron yelled, frustrated as they rounded another corner.

"They were all over the castle be--oof!" Ginny ran headfirst into her second oldest brother. "Bill!"

"What are you lot doing out so late?" Tonks said from behind Bill and Lupin.

"Death Eaters! In the castle!" Neville squeaked.

"Where?" Lupin rushed forward.

"The map, Ron!" Ginny yelled, grabbing it from him. "There!" she said, stabbing a finger at a hallway on the map not very far from where they stood. "Headed for the tower!" They all heard a massive crash and frightened shouting from the direction she had indicated. Bill grabbed the map and started running towards it.

"Come on, Remus! You three stay with Tonks!" Bill's cry was met with angry protests.

"We are NOT staying here!"

"You don't even know how many Death Eaters there are out there!"

"Not going to just sit here and do nothing -"

"QUIET!" Lupin yelled at the top of his lungs. They were all instantly silent. None of them could ever remember Lupin having yelled at anyone. "We can't be worrying about you in the middle of a battle with a bunch of Death Eaters. This is not like it was at the Ministry, there are people here to protect you. Stay here with Tonks." He glanced at her for a moment and Ginny thought Tonks looked at him like she was going to cry. Then he turned silently and ran forward, followed by Bill. Ginny felt mad with helplessness watching her brother run towards a fight that could very well kill him. Tonks slumped against the wall, watching them go.

"He's absolutely right, we need to stay here, or find someplace safer," she said morosely.

"Hermione!" Ron said suddenly.

"And Luna!" Neville said, his eyes wide.

"Tonks, we've got to go find Hermione, she was watching Snape's office with Luna, the Death Eater  
s may have sent someone to get Snape!" Ron glanced sideways at Ginny, but she refused to look at him. Tonks looked uncomfortable.

"All right then. He's in the dungeons, though, I doubt they'd go out of their way to find him," she replied.

"All the same, we've got to get Hermione and Luna, it's not safe out here." Tonks chewed on her bottom lip and Ginny was uncomfortably reminded of just how pale and troubled she looked.

"Ok. But stay behind me!" Tonks turned abruptly and strode off towards the dungeons, wand drawn and held out in front of her. Ginny, Ron and Neville ran to keep up. The noises behind them seemed to intensify, even as they got further away from the commotion. Shouts and screams echoed around the stone hallways. The walk to the dungeon seemed to be taking forever, even at the furious pace Tonks was setting.

Finally they arrived in the chilly dungeon corridor where Snape's office was, but there was no Hermione or Luna in sight. Ron began to walk even faster and started to run past Tonks, but she swept her arm out to the side of her and hit him in the chest as he came alongside.

"Stay behind me," she hissed quietly. She turned to face them several yards from the door to Snape's office and stabbed her finger pointedly at the point where they stood. Cowed, they remained where they were as she crept noiselessly towards the open door. She paused for a second, just a few feet from the door, then she straightened up and motioned them forward before walking into his office. Ron heard startled female voices from inside. One of them was Hermione, sounding shocked and frightened.

"Tonks, thank Merlin. Professor Flitwick ran by us to see Snape, he was yelling about Death Eaters and nearly out of his head. We heard a loud thump, Snape came out, told us Flitwick had fainted and we should take care of him. He went off up the stairs and didn't come back. We didn't know what to do, we haven't been able to wake him up." Ron and Ginny ran into the office and hugged Hermione fiercely. Neville followed, looking apprehensive and stood sheepishly by the door. Luna smiled vaguely at him and gave him a hug. She looked back at Ron, Ginny and Hermione with an amused expression.

"Seems to be the thing to do…"she said, and looked over to where Tonks was trying to revive a stunned Flitwick. She gave up trying after a few minutes and stood up. 

"We'll come back with Madame Pomfrey later, as it is he's probably safer here right now, you lot stay with him. I've got to find Remus…" Looking more disturbed than she had all year, Tonks swept out of the room and ran for the stairs. The five friends stood watching her back for a second. Then Ginny spoke.

"Well, bollocks to this." She picked up her wand from the floor next to Flitwick and ran out the door. For a moment no one said anything, they were too busy gaping. Luna was the first to speak.

"Oughtn't we go after her?" she said casually. All four of them, even Hermione, raced after Ginny without another word, leaving poor Professor Flitwick on the cold stone floor of Professor Snape's office. 

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Upstairs the battle was going badly. Tonks reached the top of the stairs to the room below the tower just in time to see Lupin dive to the floor avoiding a hex from a short, lumpy Death Eater who was cackling with perverse laughter. She shot one back at him and his laughter stopped short, but her curse missed and he snarled at her with broken, yellowed teeth. He raised his wand and she ducked for cover as a jet of deadly green light went flashing over her.

It's hardly fair, she thought. We're trying to stun them and they're trying to kill us.

She aimed a haphazard curse to afford herself some cover over the desk she hid behind, then lunged out from the other side to the column Remus was bracing himself against. She whipped both legs out of sight behind the column just before a massive curse rebounded off the wall next to her, showering both her and Remus with stone dust and chunks.

"Are you all right?" She had to shout over the noise of the Death Eaters howling curses at the top of their lungs.

"Hard to say," Lupin said humorlessly. She looked at him more closely and saw a thin trickle of blood dripping from under his gray-streaked hair. Her face flushed red and she stood upright, took a deep breath and started flinging curses at every Death Eater she could see.

"Where's Snape?" she yelled over to Lupin. He stood up again and resumed hexing people from the other side of the column. An enormous blond death eater howled in pain as one of her hexes caught his leg.

"No idea! Bill's pinned down behind the statue over there!" he yelled back, jerking his head towards a statue of a befuddled looking wizard missing large chunks of marble and standing in front of an alcove. "McGonagall's holding the fort down behind the other column!" A shower of pebbles from the ceiling fell over them both.

"REDUCTO!" came a fierce howl, Lupin and Tonks ducked back again, and the pillar they stood behind shook ominously. They could hear the Death Eaters by one of the stairwells laughing. McGonagall's voice was barely audible from behind the column shouting "Impedimentia!" 

"Crucio!" screamed one of the black robed figures, and the Head of Gryffindor's screams filled the room. Lupin lunged out of hiding and barely avoided being hit with a killing curse before diving behind the pillar again, swearing under his breath. McGonagall's screams stopped, they couldn't hear any sound from her.

"Where is everybody! Where are all the other teachers!" Lupin growled between his teeth.

"Come out! Or we'll do it again. Either way, we win..." More laughter came from the deranged pack. Bill yelled from behind the statue.

"One of em's coming down the tower stairs!" Tonks met Lupin's eyes, and she understood what they were going to do. To his intense surprise, she grabbed the front of his robes and kissed him fiercely, letting him go almost immediately and leaping out from behind the column, bellowing hexes as she went.

He followed a split second later and tried to give her some decent covering fire as she rushed the group of Death Eaters holding Minerva McGonagall. He felt a rush of elation, they were backing down in front of her, they were letting McGonagall go...Then he saw the huge blond Death Eater jump out from behind her as she ran forward.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" he howled in triumph, aiming directly at Tonks' back.

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Okay, so it's not really a cliff hanger because we all know what happens (sort of), but I had to pick a good spot to end the chapter. The next one is going to be the battle proper. As always, the timing and choreography is really tricky, so please let me know if I've overlooked something.


	2. Chapter 2

So here's the scene: Me eating bagels with strawberry cream cheese and avoiding writing the immensely complicated choreographic nightmare that is the battle section (which I've had to rewrite twice).

Me: Mmmm, yummy bagel, ACK! Plot bunnies! With knives!  
Plot bunny # 1: Write it!  
Me: I don't wanna!  
Plot bunny #2: Write it or we'll fill your head with images of Percy in leather trousers!  
Me: AGH! All right! No more! Mercy! swallows last bit of bagel

So, here it is with all of its bare and brutal confusing glory, with absolutely no padding or fluff, so stark I had to pile on some fluff at the end for y'll to land on when the drop is over. 

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Lupin felt a rush of elation, the Death Eaters were backing down in front of Tonks, they were letting McGonagall go….Then he saw the huge blond Death Eater jump out from behind her as she ran forward.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" he howled in triumph, aiming directly at Tonks' back.

Remus lunged forward with an animal growl and tackled the man around the knees, knocking his spell awry. Tonks kept going, but ducked her head, and the spell rebounded off the wall behind the Death Eaters and one of them toppled soundlessly, a look of intense surprise on his ugly face.

"Gibbon!" shrieked a short and surpassingly ugly witch behind the Death Eater that had collapsed. The short pause that their surprise caused gave Tonks enough time to dash around the column where McGonagall was weakly trying to stand upright. Tonks heaved the older woman up by the armpits and proceeded to drag her bodily towards the nearest hide out, the alcove behind the befuddled looking wizard where Bill was hiding. Lupin was still standing out in plain sight, bellowing jinxes and hexes at every Death Eater part he could see, but all the curses flying through the air couldn't possibly have all been coming from him…. As she heaved a stumbling Minerva McGonagall across the room she saw Neville, Luna, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny frantically aiming curses from the doorway across the room from the Death Eaters. For a second she was so relieved to have backup she forgot they were only children and she felt a rush of reassurance strong enough to finally drag the Transfiguration teacher behind the statue.

McGonagall slumped against the wall in relief, and peered around the back of the alcove. She suddenly went stiff.

"Oh dear heavens," she managed, gripping Tonks' arm and pointing into the rear of the alcove.

Bill Weasley lay face down in a widening pool of blood beneath his head, looking very much as if he were dead. Tonks stared in horror at the sight for several seconds before she was able to snap out of it. McGonagall looked as if she was losing her very last marble.

"He can't be… I just heard him shouting…" Tonks snapped back at her, jerking her back into the present.

"Take care of him, keep him out of sight, I need to help the others," she didn't think it was necessary to mention that he was probably dead already, and nothing could save him. What mattered most was not admitting it, not now, not in the middle of a battle. Feeling numb and slow, as if she moved through ice-cold water, Tonks stood up and climbed a little ways up the back of the statue to afford herself some cover and a good vantage point to see the Death Eaters. She could still hear the odd contrast of Lupin's bass, wolfish voice against the higher-pitched sounds of the teenager's spells. Oddly, she noticed at that particular moment that Ron's voice was almost as deep as Lupin's now. Can't think of that, she thought hastily. Not with another Weasley lying (most probably) dead at the foot of the statue she stood on. Finally she found a good spot under the stone wizard's raised left arm to curse from. As far as she could see, the retaliation was almost non-existent. The Death Eaters were pinned down behind a fast-disintegrating shield of tables up-ended between stone columns.

Then she saw a wand flash through the air behind the table and a loud voice, and there was an explosion so huge she was knocked off the statue into the alcove behind. She wondered for a second if she'd gone deaf and blind, her ears were ringing and it was pitch black. She pulled herself out from underneath bits of ceiling and realized that the roof had all but caved in and the magical chandelier was smashed to bits in the rubble. Groping her way backwards she cried out for McGonagall, Lupin, the children, anyone; hoping against hope she wouldn't stumble into the legs of a Death Eater standing over her.

"I'm here, I'm all right," McGonagall said between coughs as they found each other's hands. "Are you all right?"

"Fine I think, where is everyone? Remus! Ron, Ginny, are you there? Are you all right?"

"Are you all right, are you all right?" came a nasty, jeering voice out of the dark. Next second the same voice let out a curse as a well-aimed hex came out of the dark. Tonks smiled grimly. Only Ginny could hex like that in the dark with nothing but sound to judge by. The five friends remained silent though, and Tonks cursed herself for practically asking them to give away their position. All was silent for a second or two, no one was willing to cast Lumos, but just as the hair on the back of her neck began to rise the hexes began to fly again, lighting up the room in a frightening strobe-like light. Tonks caught a glimpse of four of the Death Eaters rushing up the stairs in the half-light, and then she dashed out from her hiding place at the same time as Lupin and the children, rushing forward to hex them. The few remaining Death Eaters (there were surprisingly few of them) seemed to be cowering behind the giant blond one that stood with his feet firmly planted in front of the doorway as he yelled curses.

As the group rushed towards him, he actually faltered a bit, and then smiled a wicked toothy smile that reminded Tonks very uncomfortably of a vampire. He dove away from two terrified Death Eaters cowering around his knees and away from the staircase. Their momentum carried all six of them up and over the demolished table the Death Eaters had been hiding behind, and the two cowardly wizards were stunned and shoved roughly out of the way in short order. In the meanwhile, the blond wizard was trying to take shelter behind the statue where McGonagall was tending to Bill, but several vicious, stinging hex marks had arisen on his face and curses were flying around his head as he beat a swift retreat from the heavy onslaught of the head of Gryffindor House. Soon Tonks could see by the light of the spells that he was pinned down behind the same desk near the stairs that she had first hidden behind, but he showed no signs of running away. In fact, he continued to laugh maniacally in between his howling hexes.

Behind the table, Lupin, Luna, Ginny and Neville were peering anxiously up the staircase as McGonagall, Tonks, Hermione and Ron held the huge Death Eater in his precarious position. Every curse sent another chunk of the desk flying away in splinters, and there was barely enough desk to hide him when it was intact. Lupin was studying the doorway closely with his lit wand. Neville could not stand it any longer.

"They're going to get away! They're going to do something horrible up there, let's GO!" He ran towards the stairs as fast as he could, ignoring Lupin.

"Neville! Wait! DON'T!" But Neville had already reached the foot of the stairs at full speed, and was hurled back just as forcefully by an invisible barrier that stretched and glowed green for a second like an enormous rubber band before he was propelled backwards into the already shattered table.

"NEVILLE!" Hermione screamed in shock. Luna turned and looked even paler in the light of Lupin's still lit wand hovering anxiously over Neville's pasty face. He gasped for air for a few seconds, curled into a ball, and then he finally seemed to be able to breathe. Tonks seized Ron by the shoulder and turned him forcefully back around to help reconstruct the barrier and hold off the huge wizard. Lupin continued to hover over Neville as he uncurled and tried bravely to grin. It was somewhat insincere because his face had turned an odd shade of green. He dragged himself to a sitting position and braced himself against the wall, one hand over his stomach.

"I'll be all right, help them!" he said, jerking his head towards Hermione and Ron. Tonks looked back around at Lupin with concern on her face. He yelled back to her.

"They've blocked the stairs!" He turned towards the dark stairwell. "Reducto! REDUCTO!" No effect. Lupin gnawed his lip in frustration and was about to do a repeat of Neville's disastrous charge when Tonks gave a surprised shout behind him. He whirled just in time to come face to face with Snape, who shoved him roughly aside and dashed up the stairs without a moment's hesitation or word. And without being repelled by the barrier. Lupin stared open-mouthed, unable to comprehend what he had just seen. He was transfixed for just a moment before Tonks grabbed him firmly by the robes and jerked him down a few more inches so that the curse aimed at him sailed over his head.

Frantically, for the next several minutes Lupin worked to bring down the barrier while the children and Tonks fought off the blond wizard. Unfortunately, one of his jinxes ricocheted off the wall and struck one of the paralyzed Death Eaters. The two spells reacted badly, and he became mobile again with a shrieking howl as huge boils erupted all over his legs and hands. No one had expected that, and just as he was stumbling upright and grabbing for his wand, Neville lunged up with a terrible grimace on his face and punched him so hard in the eye he fell back, stunned again. Tonks grinned wildly at Neville, but he had fallen back against the wall, wheezing and clutching his stomach.

McGonagall managed to levitate Bill behind the makeshift wall under the covering fire that Luna, Tonks, Ginny, and Hermione provided. Lupin was cursing and stamping his foot in vexation, Neville appeared to be slipping in and out of consciousness, and Ron had just stopped at the sight of his older brother, his wand dropping from his numb fingers. McGonagall set Bill down and grabbed Ron by the shoulder, forcing him down beside her. She jerked his chin up so he was looking straight in her eyes as they hunched next to Bill's prone form.

"Weasley. You can fight or you can help me heal him, but standing there and pretending to be a bull's eye will not help him!" Ron snapped out of it quickly and did the best he could with the simple healing spells he knew to try and stop the blood running from his brother's body. 

And then things got even more confusing. Tonks could have sworn at that moment that Death Eaters suddenly flooded the room, even though it was only the three that had escaped up the stairs, Snape, and Malfoy.  
"It's over! Time to go!" Snape shouted at the top of his lungs as he strode across the room, towing Draco in his wake as if he'd been tethered to him. Miraculously, they weren't hit by any curses, perhaps because the stunned group behind the barricade couldn't possibly fathom what he meant.

Ginny faced the four Death Eaters that had suddenly appeared behind them with horror, and she caught a glimpse of Draco's frightened face from behind Snape as she joined the others in a fight for her life. Fenrir and the two stumpy Death Eaters had flung themselves at them, and they were forced to let Tonks battle the blond Death Eater by herself.

Suddenly, only adding to the confusion but lifting Ginny's heart up into her mouth, Harry came running down the stairs with a crazed expression on his face. There was no time to stare though, the short lumpy man threw the Cruciatus Curse at her, cackling madly and muttering something she couldn't hear. She heard Harry shouting, Fenrir attacked him, he was going to die, he was going to be bitten…. But Harry fought him off and stunned him and ran after Ginny.

"Impedimenta!" She heard Harry yell at the top of his lungs and the man chasing her toppled to the ground with a squeal and hit the wall. He struggled upright, and sped off down the stairs, the short woman hard on his heels. Ginny rushed towards him, overwhelmingly glad to see him alive.

"Harry, where did you come from?" she cried, but Harry was not looking at her, he was wildly looking towards the stairs Snape had gone down. Then he ran forward without another word, tripped over Neville, got back to his feet and took off again after Snape and Malfoy, pausing only to strike the blond Death Eater in the face with a curse. Luckily for the desperate group, the huge man turned and fled before Harry after Snape. Feeling helpless and desperate, Ginny looked from her injured brother and back towards the hallway, and finally turned miserably back towards what was left of the battle.

There were four left in the room, but none of them were moving. Fenrir and a tall, angular faced man still lay paralyzed on the floor, and the Death Eater Neville had hit in the eye was moaning slightly and trying to move. No one seemed to want to touch the Death Eater that the blond wizard's curse had struck, everyone moved around him and avoided him. Several more Aurors had finally discovered the wreckage-strewn classroom that they were in, and more than one of them turned pale at the sight of Bill lying on the floor.

Ginny, Ron, and McGonagall knelt beside him, doing everything they could to make sure he was still alive and the bleeding had stopped. His face was badly mangled. Fenrir had nearly torn open his throat, but then by itself none of the injuries seemed life-threatening. Luna was helping Neville to his feet, his face ashen, while Tonks and Lupin moved around the room with the other Aurors helping to secure the remaining Death Eaters. Every once in a while Lupin cast a quick glance at Tonks, which no one seemed to notice.

Eventually McGonagall thought it was safe enough to move Bill, and she and Ron levitated his very still body down to the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey met them at the door, distraught and frantic.

"I wanted to go, I wanted to go find someone, but what if someone was hurt? What if someone came here needing help while I was gone?" She hastily moved around Bill, inspecting the damage and shuffling handfuls of ointments. Ginny thought she looked close to tears and much more vulnerable and upset than her normal forbidding self.

McGonagall stood staring sadly at Bill, before slowly turning towards Ron and Ginny who sat stone-faced by his bed.

"I've…. I'll go and get Arthur and Molly…" she said in a small voice, as if it was all she could offer them. Then she turned quickly around and hurried out of the room. Luna and Neville entered shortly after she left, both of them walking slowly and Luna practically carrying Neville.

Ginny looked at her older brother and then back at Madam Pomfrey. The older woman gave her an apologetic look.

"He'll live. He's not…he's not terribly injured. The healing spells don't seem to work on werewolf bites…" She looked frightened at the uncomprehending look on Ginny's face. "There will be some …bad scarring. But he'll be all right." Ginny looked back at her older brother, and Ron continued to stare at him in shocked disbelief. Ginny doubted he had heard anything she said. Suddenly she remembered Harry chasing after Snape and Malfoy.

"Ron." He didn't respond to her for a second, then he looked up, his face terribly empty. "Ron, I've got to find Harry, anything could have happened to him. Look after Bill, I'll be back soon." He nodded slowly, and went back to staring at Bill's mangled face. She got up hesitantly and walked out of the infirmary, past where Luna was quietly talking to Neville as he got settled into a bed somewhat gingerly.

As soon as she left the infirmary, she found the castle flooded with confused, night-gowned students wandering about. She didn't even think of asking them if they had seen Harry, she didn't think of heading back to the Room of Requirement, she just followed the general drift of the crowd that led to the entrance hall. It seemed to take forever to get there, her ears seemed to be ringing, her heart was pounding faster than it had during the battle. She tried to stop herself from shoving people out of her way as she passed the shattered Gryffindor hourglass. She was nearly running as she left the hall and walked out onto the front lawns. The entire grounds were lit with a cold green light, and as she looked upward she saw the Dark Mark hovering above the tower they had fought in. Then she was running, her legs were heavy and numb, she could see people gathered around a figure on the grass below the tower. Her breath caught in her throat and she nearly collapsed in relief when she saw that one of the people crouched next to the still body had dark, messy hair and Hagrid was trying to pull him away.

Then she saw who the body on the ground was and she nearly fainted. She swayed where she stood for a second, then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Harry wasn't leaving, Hagrid couldn't get him to leave Dumbledore's body there on the ground.

"No." He kept repeating over again, woodenly. Ginny stood beside him and took his hand.

"Come on, Harry." She didn't tug him or insist, but he slowly stood and followed her. She led him back up through the hall and towards the Hospital Wing. "We're going to the Hospital Wing," she said quietly.

"I'm not hurt," said Harry in a dull voice.

"It's McGonagall's orders," Ginny lied. "Everyone's up there, Ron and Hermione and Lupin and everyone…"

"Ginny, who else is dead?" Ginny winced at the way he said it.

"Don't worry, none of us."

"But the Dark Mark, Malfoy said he stepped over a body…"

"He stepped over Bill, but it's all right, he's alive." Ginny managed not to burst into hysterical tears.

"Are you sure?" 

Are you sure? Are you sure your brother's not dead? No, I just left him without checking to go find your sorry-GINNY! He just had to watch Dumbledore DIE for god's sake! Get a grip! She got a hold of herself.

"Of course I'm sure…he's a — bit of a mess, that's all. Greyback attacked him. Madam Pomfrey says he won't — won't look the same anymore…" Her voice trembled despite herself. "We don't really know what the aftereffects will be — I mean, Greyback being a werewolf but not transformed at the time."

"But the others…There were other bodies on the ground…" That Ginny could talk about.

"Neville and Professor Flitwick are both hurt, but Madam Pomfrey says they'll be all right. And a Death Eater's dead, he got hit by a Killing Curse that the huge blond one was firing off everywhere — Harry if we hadn't had your Felix potion, I think we'd all have been killed, but everything seemed to just miss us —"

Miraculously they had finally reached the infirmary, and Ginny was gladly quiet for a few moments as she went to sit next to Bill again. Neville was asleep in the bed in the corner, and Luna had joined the others. Hermione ran up to Harry and hugged him, and Lupin stood up looking anxious to ask him if he was all right. Ginny tuned out their conversation, until she heard Ron's slightly panicky voice saying something about Dumbledore. She looked over to Harry, who was staring pointedly at the floor. It was her job to say it then. Wonderful. 

She looked up at them and said, "Ron, Dumbledore's dead."

Lupin looked as if he'd been stabbed and shouted "No!" before collapsing completely into a chair.

Ginny didn't remember much of the long and wearing retelling of the battle after that, and she was just barely aware of Harry explaining what had happened on top of the tower. She lifted her head slightly when McGonagall returned and told them that her parents were coming. 

Molly Weasley immediately ran to her son's bedside, and Mr. Weasley stood beside him looking pale and asked about what would happen to him. But Ginny saw Fleur behind him and moved over to sit next to Harry so she could watch her. She was staring down at Bill, stricken and sad.

Ginny's mother began to cry, trying to hold her hands steady enough to put on the ointment.  
"Of course it doesn't matter how he looks," she sobbed. "It's not really important…but he was always a very handsome little boy…" her voice shook. "Always very handsome. And he was going to be married-"

"And what do you mean by zat?" Ginny was staring fixedly at Fleur now with a curious expression on her face. "What do you mean, ''e was going to be married!'" she said even louder.

Mrs. Weasley looked at her, plainly surprised, but Ginny kept her eyes on Fleur, hoping….she wasn't sure what she hoped. Mrs. Weasley stammered out, "Well, only that —" 

"You theenk because of these bites, he will not love me?" She looked fierce as Mrs. Weasley began to answer.

"No, that's not what I — "

"Because he will! It would take more zan a werewolf to stop Bill loving me!" She tossed her hair back defiantly and seemed to grow a few inches.

"Well, yes, I'm sure, but I thought perhaps, given how — how he — " Everyone in the room was watching them intently now.

"You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per'aps you 'oped?" Ginny winced. "What do I care how 'e looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave! And I shall do zat!" she announced fiercely as she pulled the salve out of Mrs. Weasley's hand and began to smooth it on Bill's wounds. Ginny found herself unconsciously holding her breath and let it out tentatively. Everyone else was waiting for Mrs. Weasley to protest, but Ginny was watching the expression on her mother's face and knew she was closer to crying than to shouting. Finally she spoke slowly.

"Our Great-Auntie Muriel has a very beautiful tiara — goblin-made - which I am sure I could persuade her to lend you for the wedding. She is very fond of Bill, you know, and it would look lovely with your hair."

"Thank you. I am sure zat would be lovely." Fleur's bottom lip quivered, and Mrs. Weasley sniffed. Then they were both hugging each other and crying. Ginny stared at them incredulously, but she felt tremendously relieved at the same time. Well, she thought, she makes him happy….   
Ron had even come out of his stupor to stare open mouthed at the scene in front of him.

"You see!" Ginny heard from behind her. She turned to see Tonks glaring at Lupin. And suddenly things began to make sense to her. "She still wants to marry him, even though he's been bitten! She doesn't care!" Ginny barely heard Lupin's reply.

"It's different. Bill will not be a full werewolf, the cases are completely —"

"But I don't care either, I don't care! I've told you a million times - " She grabbed his robe and shook him. Ginny and Hermione goggled. Luna looked vaguely amused.

"And I've told you a million times that I am too old for you, too poor, too dangerous." He stared at the floor mumbling. Tonks continued to hold onto his robes and Mrs. Weasley spoke up quietly.

"I've said all along you're taking a ridiculous line on this, Remus."

"I am not being ridiculous. Tonks deserves somebody young and whole." But now he was looking at Tonks, and she stared back into his eyes, pleadingly. Surprisingly, at least to Ginny, her father spoke next.

"But she wants you, and after all, Remus, young and whole men do not necessarily remain so." He gestured at Bill with an expression so sad Ginny almost cried again. Lupin looked back to the floor.

"This… is not the moment to discuss this. Dumbledore is dead…"

"Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think there was a little more love in the world," concluded Professor McGonagall firmly as Tonks dropped her hands to her sides looking miserable. Ginny didn't want to look at her face anymore, and looked back to her brother. She squeezed his hand absently. A few moments later, Hagrid came in, and McGonagall took Harry away. The rest of the night was hazy in her memory. In the end she fell asleep in the chair, still holding Bill's hand, and her father must have carried her up to her room, because when she woke the next day she was in her bed. 

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As Ginny began to nod off, and the Weasleys and Fleur sat quietly around Bill, Luna wandered discreetly over to visit with Neville, who had woken up and was already looking better. Hermione quietly excused herslf some moments later, squeezing Ron on the shoulder before leaving, and he absently reached a hand up to squeeze it back in a gesture only Mrs. Weasley and Hermione really noticed. Tonks got up to follow, and gave Lupin a quick we-should-go look. They said good night, and left the Weasleys their privacy. Tonks began to go down the stairs towards the dungeon room where she had been staying, walking quickly to get away from Lupin. She was exhausted, frustrated, and embarrassed. Halfway down the stairwell she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to face Lupin.

"Remus-" she began, but he interrupted her quietly.

"I'm sorry. I was only trying to do…what's best for you." She looked at him sadly.

"You are what's best for me. Not what's safest, not what's normal or convenient, what's best for me."

"I know, I just… can you…." He raised his arms helplessly and Tonks couldn't help but throw herself into them, and he hugged her back before she could pull away. They clung together tightly and silently for several moments; he gently reached up to stroke her hair, his head rested on top of hers. Finally she dared to look up at his face and he smiled ruefully down at her. "Oh all right," he said in defeat. She smiled oddly, and then abruptly began to cry. 

Completely mystified, Lupin tried to comfort her. He had wanted to do this for so long…. She buried her face in his robes and sobbed as he held her. Eventually, she calmed down, and smiled guiltily at him as she wiped her eyes on her sleeves.

"Sorry," she whispered, and leaned against him, exhausted.

"It's all right," he said, not really knowing what was all right, but by God if it wasn't all right, he was going to make it. She wobbled a little on her feet and he leaned forward to pick her up. She squeaked in surprise as her feet left the floor. Half-heartedly she tried to resist, but soon gave up, putting her arms around his shoulder and neck.

"What are you doing?" she murmured into his chest. 

"Putting you to bed," he said as he walked down to the dungeons.

"I can walk, you know." He looked at her.

"Do you WANT me to put you down?" She snuggled a little further into his chest.

"No."

Tonks thought they reached her room much too quickly, and when he set her down outside her door she hugged him again tightly. She wanted to ask him to stay, she was afraid of the nightmares she'd have, but she refused to push him too quickly. He spared her the awkwardness of finding something to say.

"I'll see you in the morning," he said softly, and kissed her on the forehead before turning and walking silently back to his room. 

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I know it's incredibly long, I really want to get out of the book and on with the original plot stuff, that's where the Great-Grandma plot bunny lies in wait. Yeah, Traumatizing and disturbing things lie ahead!

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	3. Chapter 3

!WARNING!  
This chapter lives up to the blood/graphic violence rating with a vengeance and there is some profanity, so if you are even a little bit squeamish DON'T READ, this is pretty intense. Finally out of HBP, and now we find out what Draco's been doing all this time. Plot backs up a bit to right after Dumbledore's death after a small update. Don't kill me, wait and see.

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Ginny passed through the weeks following the Death Eater attack in the same odd, surreal blur that had settled on her after the battle. She couldn't reconcile the world she was in now with the dark, abrupt night she had spent fighting in the tower. That had been fast-paced, startlingly clear, and with no time to think beyond blind reaction and dodging the next curse. Coming back seemed to be like going into slow-motion, and (Ginny hated to admit it) it was like she had been riding dangerous, seething rapids and whitewater only to find herself drifting slowly down a sluggish and mundane stream. Nothing was quite the same, it felt almost like the time after the fight at the Ministry, but then she'd still mostly been a frightened child, acting out of instinct and her quick Seeker's reflexes. She had been glad to get home and back to routine after that. Only recently had the nightmares of being pursued down dark hallways by faceless laughing voices started to go away, after all. Nightmares where one after another her friends fell or disappeared at every turn until she was finally left alone, backed into a hallway. Alone in the dark, a frightened little girl.

Ginny was no stranger to the feeling even then, but she had become stronger. Tom Riddle's assault on her mind had strengthened her, giving her a stubborn willfullness and resolve to never let anything else control her mind. Not fear, not nightmares, not even Voldemort.

She didn't feel brave, saying his name. She had seen the deepest, most intimate secrets of his past when he'd opened up to her, more probably than he'd intended her to see. He hadn't been very careful about sharing his memories in his blind desperation to get out, his longing for freedom. So he had emptied all of himself into her. Ginny knew the truth about Voldemort. About Tom. He was only a boy, a cruel, petulant teenage boy with a huge ego and a quick mind and tongue. _No wonder Draco's drawn to him, _she thought idly. But Ginny refused to be impressed. She had come through the Valley of Shadow, and she did not fear the evil she had seen.

Ginny Weasely was not afraid of the dark anymore.

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Somehow she had managed to maneuver herself and Harry through the last days of school, quietly supporting and helping the troubled boy. Harry was pensive most of the time, aloof and quiet. They sat for hours on the battlements, by the lake, at the edge of the woods; her arm around his shoulders, he staring off into space. Then the funeral came. And went. Ginny was not surprised or even crushed when Harry quietly broke up with her. They had come through too much for her to cry and carry on, even though she felt odd that she hadn't even cried about it. He seemed to have it firmly set in his mind that everyone he came close to, died.  
His parents.  
Sirius.  
Dumbledore.  
Ginny found it hard to argue against, but she did the best she could to convince him it wasn't his fault before she was whisked away and into the Long Summer of the Over-Watchful Parents.

She was sure she would suffocate under the constant vigilance of her parents: the strict curfews, the ceaseless interrogations on where she was going, where she had been, and who she was with. So, at two in the morning three weeks into the summer, Ginny quietly got up, put on a cloak while her family slept, and snuck out her bedroom window without a sound.

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Draco pelted down the stairs ahead of Snape, thankful for the extra Quidditch practices that had given him the reflexes to dodge the hexes and weave through mobs of confused Hufflepuffs. Snape occasionally caught up to him, giving him a harsh shove forward before looking back over his shoulder again. Finally they were past the Great Hall, running across soft damp grass, and Hagrid was standing in front of them, mouth open, staring horrorstruck at the Dark Mark in the sky.

Draco chanced a look over his shoulder as he darted past Hagrid. _That idiot Potter!_ As if he could ever hope to challenge Snape. Severus had taught Draco to curse, better than Lucius ever had. But Lucius was in Azkaban, and Severus..._Keep running, don't think about that. Thank God, I've passed the gate, where is Snape, damn him!_ Draco turned abruptly and squinted towards the castle. One of the idiot Death Eaters had set Hagrid's miserable hovel on fire. _Ah, good, Snape's got that moron Potter on the ground. Come ON, man!_ Then Snape was running towards the gate, he grabbed Draco by the scruff of the neck and hauled him forward, threw an arm around his shoulders and then there was a squeezing, dizzying pressure and darkness as they Apparated. All too soon Draco's feet hit cold wet pavement and he stumbled forward onto his face.

It was a dimly lit space he looked up at, and very fetid smelling. Rubbing his head gingerly, Draco hauled himself upright, and leaned against the brick wall of the alley he found himself in, before recoiling from the wall in distaste. Shouts and laughter echoed through the dingy passage, and the dim light came through yellowed shades in the few illuminated windows on either side of the alley.

No, this was definitely not the Manor. And where the hell was Snape? The shouts seemed to be getting louder, and now Draco could hear the dull thud of boots. He wasn't panicked. Malfoys didn't panic. Death Eaters didn't panic, they didn't live long if they did. He muttered a hasty Illusion charm and stood still, waiting to see who was coming. Perhaps the plans had changed. _Or perhaps Snape abandoned you and tailed it to the Dark Lord, _a nasty little voice that sounded eerily like his father whispered in his ear.

"Shut up!" he hissed sharply to himself. The voices were beginning to be intelligible, or they would have been if the accents hadn't been so thick and slightly slurred with drink. 

They were unmistakably British, and as they approached, Draco silently thanked whatever God was listening that he was at least in the same country. He leered disgustedly as the small pack of young men prowled down the alley.

"Hey, Donnal, yeh still have me last pack of fags, give 'em over," one belligerent youth snarled. The snarl was somewhat lessened when he swayed alarmingly to the left and had to skip a step to steady himself.  
'Donnal' sneered back.

"Ahm keepin' it, ah payed for that last boddel, an' you drunk more of it even than Georgie."

A shorter, but nastier looking man glared at Donnal.

"An you would know fuck-all about et, wouldn' you?"

"Piss off."

"Give over the bloody fags!"

Draco stepped back towards the wall as they approached, nearly invisible. His foot came down on something soft and there was a bloodcurdling yell that caused him to leap straight into the air. He looked down, and an irate homeless man gibbered up at him inanely, clutching his hand. Draco heard profane exclamations behind him and jerked around just as a rough hand yanked his cloak off, along with his shaky Illusion charm.

"Hey, an look, if it ain't a chamerleon!" leered Donnal.

"My he IS fancy, ain't he?" smirked Georgie. "Wots ee doin' down here, dressed all fancy?"

"In a DRESS," leered Donnal, shaking the robe, "and a VEST. Goin' to grandma's, laddie?" Draco lashed out an arm and struck the short man in the face, ducking away from his grasping hands. As he turned away he whipped his wand out of his pocket and brandished it at them. The six men stared in astonishment for a second, and then burst into raucous drunken laughter.

_Muggles, of all the damn luck,_ Draco thought.

"Yore goin' to put out an eye, lad!"

"Watch it Petey, he wants to whip you!"

Draco's lips thinned to a cold white line, and he glared back at them so coldly and malevolently that the laughter died away and the first two took a step backward. The short, ugly man fixed him with a stern glare.

"Put down the stick boy, we'll go easy on yeh. Yer only warning." Draco continued to stare at him. "All right then. Have at im, then." The six men started to move.

"Crucio!" Draco bellowed, and Donnal dropped to the ground, howling in agony and rolling about. Draco released him and the others stared at the sobbing, drunken oaf curled on the pavement. As one, the other five turned to look at Draco, and rushed him.

"AVA -" was all Draco could get out before he was crushed under the five enraged men, his wand snapped and useless immediately. Pounding, crippling blows rained on him, he tried to writhe out of their grip but strong hands held him by the shirt and the hair, two more wrapped around his neck and squeezed mercilessly.

"Yeh like that, pretty boy!" screeched one of them, hitting Draco in the stomach. The young wizard jerked painfully forward, gasping. His silver hair flopped sadly over his forehead as he heavecd convulsively. Rough hands pulled off his school vest and shirt. Draco fought madly, fighting, biting, kicking and hitting every scrap of flesh he could reach. A heavy fist crashed into the back of his head, and he staggered. Another smashed into his lower back and he crumpled forward onto his hands and knees, blood dripping from his split lips over his pale, pale face. Bright red welts and purple bruises were already rising on his thin exposed sides and arms, both eyes were black and swelling. A vicious boot landed in his ribs and he fell sideways, sprawling on the filthy stone. He couldn't find the strength to curl in on himself, and he lay bare-chested with his arms flung outward on his back.

He heard mocking laughter and he could barely see through his swelling eyelids that one of the men was wearing his vest over his tattered leather jacket and they were all laughing at him. He tried weakly to move his legs and croaked in pain through his sore throat. Another boot kicked him hard in the hip. 

"Leave 'im here, he's learned 'is place," sneered one of them, and they slowly meandered back down the alley away from him, bored once more. Draco lay still, unable to move, making an effort to just keep breathing. After the last footsteps echoed off the walls he tried to move, but he froze suddenly. Hot, whisky smelling breath was puffing over his face.

"This is fer what you did to Donnal, yeh bloody fuckin' coward," he heard the gravelly voice of the short man say. He didn't have time to brace himself before he felt the cold smoothness of a knife put against his ribs. He choked and flailed his cramping arms weakly against the man, but the blade went on sliding across his skin. His arms were caught above his head and pinned cruelly to the stone under the man's knee, and the terrible, slow pressure of the knife increased gradually. 

Draco struggled feebly against the waves of pain crashing over his bruised skull and pulsing through his arms. The knife popped through his skin with a sickening feeling of released tension and hot, wet warmth flooded out over him. Draco gasped and flailed, and the cold sliver moved so very, very slowly between his ribs. The knife suddenly thrust downward sharply and Draco felt something inside him break and collapse, then the man hissed softly in his ear and jerked the knife away, running after his friends.

The young wizard coughed and jerked for several long moments, spasmodically, before slowing his breathing desperately. He could feel one side of chest getting heavier, and heavier... Thick liquid tickled his throat and he coughed wetly, feeling blood spray past his lips and cling to them. There was a rushing in his ears he hadn't noticed before, getting louder and pounding pounding pounding away, slower and slower yet somehow still getting louder. His body began to shiver, even though he didn't feel the cold, only the numbness spreading through him from his head downward and the sharp pricking from the edge of the knife wound every time he breathed. Then slowly, slowly, he felt himself falling and twisting away into the darkness inside his head.


	4. Chapter 4

I know you're reading it, and this is the last chapter I have written at the moment, so if you want to know what happens next, REVIEW IT! smiles sweetly Thank you!

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The thing that woke him up wasn't the light in the room, even though it was early in the afternoon and the sun was shining warmly over his face. It wasn't the sounds of the children playing a loud game in the street below. It wasn't even the faint smell of brick mold that is so distinctive in old, damp apartment buildings. It was, in fact, a tongue. Not a soft, smooth, seductive tongue, because certainly Draco would have been accustomed enough to that to not let it wake him. No, actually it was quite a bit more like sandpaper, and smelled a bit like fish, and it was licking his eyelid.

Draco's mind slowly revolved upward through the warm haze in his brain brought on by soft blankets, warm sunlight, and a cat curled up between his neck and shoulder, calmly cleaning his face with its rough tongue. Draco frowned at it sternly for a moment, but, being a cat, it merely ignored him and began washing its feet in a manner that suggested it completely lacked a spine or any other bones. Draco was not used to waking up and having to frown sternly at cats, and it is probably lucky that he had to take a moment to think about this, otherwise he might have tried to sit up. That would have been disastrous.

He lifted his head slightly (much to the irritation of the cat) and looked downward over the blankets that covered him. He couldn't see the bandages that must be wrapped around him; blankets hid them. He couldn't feel them. In actuality, he couldn't really feel much of anything. He didn't have any difficulty remembering _exactly_ what had happened on the night of what was supposed to be the most important day of his young life. He did have difficulty remembering anything after that, but he was spared the trouble of using his imagination because at that moment the owner of the cat appeared through the doorway next to the old armchair with a lace doily on top of it.

"Ah," the owner of the cat said.

Draco looked up with a surprising sense of vague but benign indifference, and also said, "Ah." He wasn't positive why he should feel indifference, notwithstanding varying degrees of benignity, but he was certain this was a surprising thing to feel because the person standing before him perfectly fit the description of "sweet old lady." And she certainly wasn't anyone that Draco had had the opportunity to know.

"Good to see you awake. Thought you had kicked the bucket for a long while there. How do you feel?" She smiled at him, walked over to the bed and patted the cat. The cat appreciated this, and said so with a low rumbling purr that vibrated the skin on Draco's neck pleasantly. Draco had always felt that if a cat vouched for a person, no doubt that was a better endorsement than any that a person could give. Draco considered his response.

"Vague," he said firmly. She nodded as if this were to be expected.

"It's the drugs."

Draco nodded back, as if this were a normal thing for a wizard to nod back to. Then he said, "What?"

"Drugs. Morphine. For the pain. Are you hungry? You've been in and out for the last two days."

Draco suddenly he realized he was ravenous, and nodded again.

She left the room quietly and he lay his head back down next to the cat again. He had a (vague) feeling he should be worried about something. He was too sleepy and comfortable to think about this too hard though, and he allowed himself to drift back off to a dreamless sleep while he waited for his food. 

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"Remus?"

"Mnnn….?"

"You're squashing me."

"Mnnn." Remus opened one eye and peered down at Tonks. "So I am," he said sleepily, and began to go back to sleep. Tonks rolled her eyes and poked a finger into his side. He jumped. Tonks grimaced, as his jumping had caused him to lift up and flop over in a perilously heavy way onto her stomach.

"Remus."

"Yes?" He didn't open his eyes.

"You are lying on half a pound of strawberries, chocolate, and a cheeseburger." With exaggerated effort, Remus Lupin rolled off of the spiky-haired witch and face-down onto the sun-warmed grass. He opened the other eye.

"How do you stay so skinny?" he asked mischievously. She quirked a pink eyebrow at him and smiled.

"Magic." He rolled his eyes in return and planted his face back into the grass. "Although chasing after a fabulously attractive wizard who's stolen my strawberries certainly helps."

Remus muttered something under his breath about what he'd like to do with her strawberries and Tonks thumped him on the shoulder.

"Ouch, woman!" he growled, but she just smirked. He looked up at the sky beseechingly. "Why, oh lord, was I afflicted with this witch?"

"Oh that's just it." Tonks stood up, walked three steps, tripped over a root, and would have fallen flat on her face if Remus hadn't caught her around the waist and swung her backwards into his arm.

"You know, you're awfully clumsy for a nymph." Remus grinned at her. Tonks snorted.

"Wolf boy."

"Nymph."

"Grrr," she said, picking grass out of his hair. "Honestly, I don't know how I've put up with you this long. I must be crazy to want you around."

"Crazy enough to make it permanent?" he said quietly. She froze, fingers still in his brown and prematurely-gray hair. He stared back at her calmly.

"Remus….are you …." Tonks returned his gaze levelly, with one pink eyebrow cocked.

"I told you, I've wasted too much time with you already, being an idiot. I'd like to make it up to you, if you give me the chance." She swallowed when she saw the small box in his hand.

"Nymphadora Tonks, will you marry me?" She winced at the use of her first name. He laughed. "All right. Will you marry me, Tonks?" She smiled and hugged him.

"That's much better. Of course I will." He sighed with relief.

"Thank God that's over, is it supposed to be that difficult?"

"Well usually it's more romantic than 'You're nutters and so am I, let's tie the knot!'"

"Bloody hard to propose to a girl who doesn't let you say her name," Lupin grinned.

"Are you going to give me the damn ring or not?"

"Here. Nymph." She took it from him, spent a long moment admiring the beautiful silver stream wrapped around the diamond, and then she swatted his leg.

"You can't hit me, I'm your fiance!" He said with a look of injured dignity.

"You're a loony," she giggled and kissed him.

"Nymph."

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The wind whipped fitfully at her cloak as it dropped down from the open sky above into the alley, but she was wrapped up warmly in one of her mother's knit sweaters. The moon was cold and white in the black sky, and looked down at her with its harsh, accusing white light. The light reminded her of the fluorescent ones in King's Cross train station, where she had gotten lost the day Fred and George left for their first day of school. She had been terrified, surrounded by that cold white light and hundreds of strangers.

She was alone now. At least, mostly so. She had been waiting here at this spot in the alley for close to an hour, she thought. But now she could hear what she had come for, furtively sneaking in the dark, trying to be quiet. 

Before her second year, Ginny wouldn't have heard it. She would have been running up and down, crying for her mother and trying to find her way home. She wouldn't have heard the creeping footsteps until it was too late. They were very close now. Ginny let out a small whimper and crouched even further into the shadow of the doorway she was hiding in. The noise was very small, but not too small for the creeper to hear. He froze, listening.

Ginny shuffled her feet a little, pulling the crooked school skirt closer around her legs. The man hesitated another moment. Gently, trying hard to keep her thoughts vague and indirect, she pushed an image of a little girl, lost and sniffling in Knockturn Alley, into his mind. He jumped a little, as if startled, but she went on, showing the dirt on the little girl's nose, the strands of red hair messily pulled from her formerly neat braid. She could feel him smirk in his mind as he looked at the image that he thought he had imagined. She tried not to shudder at the thoughts that followed this one through his head, but she read them nonetheless. She wasn't looking for an innocent person.

He crept forward several more feet until he could see her eyes clearly in the white light of the moon. He stopped in surprise when he saw that her eyes were not young and frightened, but old and angry. Very angry.

Startled, he turned tail to leave, but it was too late for him. He jerked upright as he saw a man standing in front of him, covered in blood and moaning. He shouted in horror and stumbled backwards, waving away at the apparition. Then the man disappeared abruptly and was replaced by a witch writhing on the ground, screaming and jerking in agony. She disappeared and was replaced by another horrific image, and another, coming faster and faster in quick succession as he stumbled away from them screaming in horror. Finally, as he slumped against the wall, covering his eyes and sobbing hysterically. Reluctantly he peered through his fingers.

There was a man. A tall, thin, hairless man, standing with his back to him. He wasn't covered in blood. He wasn't screaming. He wasn't doing anything. The creeper bit back another hiccuping sob.

"Please..._Please_ help me...please..." he sobbed out. The thin man's head turned ever so slightly, as if he had barely heard him. Then he slowly turned around, and the hysterical man could see his whole face. His eyes popped open in soundless terror, he made a choking noise in his throat and pushed back against the wall as if he could hope to push himself right through it.

The tall, thin man's eyes (_Red! Red eyes!_, thought the man desperately in his head) bored into him as he stepped soundlessly closer, the thin robes outlining his amazingly emaciated body as he strode forward. The man quaked and shivered uncontrollably as the apparition's thin lips stretched back in a snarl, then the cold, hard hand gripped him around the neck and his eyes rolled into his head as he fainted.

There was absolute silence in the alley, all the wind had suddenly died away. Ginny Weasley stood stock still, her small warm hand on the throat of an unconscious, unshaven, creepy wizard three times her age. The moon watched them coldly in her harsh white light.

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Sorry to leave everyone in the lurch! smiles and waves cheekily See you next week! And if you're confused as hell and are sitting there going WTFBBQ mate, don't worry, all will be revealed. And if you've figured it out, DON'T TELL and spoil everyone's confusedness! Teehee!


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